CRC 1475 „Metaphors of Religion“

Religious Meaning-Making in Language Use

Religious meaning-making occurs in and through metaphors. In metaphors, meaning is transferred from one semantic domain to another. Religion, which cannot directly articulate its ultimate subject (the transcendent), is dependent on this procedure. CRC 1475 seeks to understand this process both theoretically and methodologically in order to investigate the semantic forms of religion empirically and comparatively. In this way, religion as a socio-cultural phenomenon can be better understood, and key developments within specific religious traditions can be analysed more precisely. The CRC thus contributes both to the historiography of religions and to addressing systematic questions in the comparative study of religion.

While extensive research has been devoted to individual metaphors in religious texts, the CRC’s distinctive contribution lies, first, in its focus on metaphoricity as a fundamental principle of religious meaning-making. Religion is understood as a form of communication that seeks to cope with ultimate contingency by means of the transcendence/immanence distinction. Within this paradoxical process, metaphors enable inferences from familiar domains of experience (source domains) to realities beyond direct human access (target domains), thereby generating religious meaning.

Second, the CRC’s multidisciplinary composition enables comparative research on a scale unparalleled in the field. The subprojects investigate sources from the second millennium BCE to the present day in languages including Avestan, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Classical Chinese, Tibetan, and several European languages. They cover Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Zoroastrian, Jain, Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist traditions. The organisation of the subprojects into the three sections The Physical, The Mind, and The Social provides a common framework for analysing and comparing metaphorical patterns across religious traditions, languages, and historical contexts.

Third, the CRC is integrated through a shared methodological infrastructure. A metaphor annotation tool employed across all subprojects combines hermeneutic interpretation with computational analysis. The research corpora are brought together in a shared repository, and all identified metaphors are linked to the Thesaurus of Religious Metaphors (TRM). Continuously expanded throughout the project, the TRM and related digital tools provide a sustainable research infrastructure for the comparative investigation of religious metaphors.

In its second funding phase, the CRC broadens its perspective both theoretically and methodologically. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between linguistic and conceptual metaphors and to the development of an ontology of religious metaphors. At the same time, the scope of the research is extended beyond textual sources to include images, material objects, and performative practices, allowing metaphorical processes to be investigated across different media. By combining historical depth, cross-cultural comparison, digital infrastructure, and theoretical innovation, CRC 1475 continues to advance a comprehensive comparative theory of religious metaphoricity and contributes to a deeper understanding of religious communication in its linguistic, visual, material, and performative dimensions.

Duration

01/2022 – 12/2029

Funded by